Hogwarts castle stood impressively in the distance. In the darkness it was just barely possibly to discern its outline. James Potter stared at it intently, standing outside the mouth of the cave in Hogsmeade. He pulled his cloak tighter around himself as he felt a chilling autumn breeze blow. This was the place where had looked forward to coming from the time he was a mere child. It was the place that he had learned magic, and the place that he had met his best friends-the place that he had become an illegal animagus and the place he had played quidditch-the place that he had found his soul mate, the place he had met the mother of his son. From the day his son had entered the world, he had dreamt of his coming to the school and having his own memorable experiences-but that wouldn't happen now. The place that had been an institution of magic and academics was now gone. Now it would become a fortress for fear and hate.

James wearily shook his head and turned back towards the cave. A light glow from several torches lit the structure which was thus far empty save for James and Alastor Moody. James quickly walked in and conjured a chair similar to the one that an agitated Moody was currently seated in.

"I always knew that old man was bad news. It's always a worrisome sign when one bloody person has so much influence in every facet of our world," Moody grumbled.

"What's surprising is that he's been corrupting people for so many years and no one has ever turned coat on him," James added as he took a seat. "Unless he made everyone swear secrecy, I can't see how no one ever tried to gain notoriety by going to the press."

Moody let out a bark like laugh. "There could've been many reasons son. The first, probably being that the ministry owns the press, and now we're aware that the scum bag owns the ministry. But the real problem with someone like Dumbledore is that they have the ability to inspire. It's not always a bad thing, but when the person is spreading hate and cruelty it's terribly dangerous. The people he's been preaching to all believe in what he's saying. He's got his own army so we know they're all willing to die for him."

"Have you ever dueled him?" James asked curiously.

"Aye, it was many years back that it happened. It was just a simple practice duel, but it got heated. I held my own for about twenty minutes or so before he caught me off guard, which is a feat in itself. I ended up with a broken leg and some cracked ribs, Albus just sustained a few cuts. The unnerving aspect is that he beat me with all legal magic. If he's been practicing the dark arts for so long there's no telling how powerful he actually is."

They sat in silence for several minutes, James fiddling with his wand and Moody taking several swigs from his hip flask. James sat contemplating things over in his head before he looked over at the old auror. "I need your help Moody."

Moody looked over not concerned. "Aye, that's what I'm here for Potter."

James shook his head, "no, I'm not talking about the meeting tonight I'm talking about my son."

"What about him?"

James stood from his seat and began pacing, before turning back to Moody. "What I'm about to tell you doesn't get repeated, I need your promise."

Moody lifted his wand and said, "I swear on my life I won't repeat what your about to tell me without your direct permission."

"Alright," James started. "I told you that Dumbledore sent Voldemort to kill my whole family, but that's not the entire truth. There was a prophecy created some time ago saying that my son would have the power to defeat the Dark Lord, and he would be the only one. My son's the only one that can kill Dumbledore."

Moody sat there without any noticeable reaction. "And what do you need of me?"

"I need you to help me train him, help me make him the best. I'm good with magic, but you're even better. When the time comes for him to face Dumbledore, I want Harry to destroy him. Please help me train him?" James pleaded with as much dignity as possible to his former instructor.

Again, Moody sat without his face changing from its normal disgruntled expression. "Don't look so desperate Potter; you know there's no chance in hell that I'm going to say no. You're one of the few people I actually like."

James laughed, relieved. "Thank you Moody."

"You can thank me after your boy finishes the Dark Lord. Now where in the hell is everyone? I hate waiting."

James looked down at his wrist and checked his watch. "They should start getting here any minute now." Sure enough, a few seconds later there was the sound of several pops outside the cave entrance. Both James a Moody raised their wands, waiting on the newcomers to make an appearance, however, they quickly dropped them when the form of Sirius Black entered followed by a bleary-eyed Remus Lupin.

"Glad to see we haven't missed the party," Sirius stated sarcastically. Sirius noticed that James was staring intently at Remus and quickly moved to intervene. "Don't worry about it James, I got him to take an oath that he was loyal, even if he was a bit grumpy about it."

"Well wouldn't you be grumpy if your best friend came into your home telling you about the downfall of the Wizard community and then asked you to take an oath that you weren't a traitor," Remus huffed.

James walked over to his werewolf friend and patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry Moony normally I would never question you, but after one attempt on my family I'm taking no more chances."

Remus still looked a little put out, but he nodded his head. "I know, I would probably do the same thing if I was in your situation. How are Lily and Harry?"

"They're alright; just a little shaken up—hopefully they're sleeping now. Come in and get a seat before the rest of the people show up."

The four sat around for a few more minutes, talking quietly, until larger groups of people started to arrive. Ameila Bones showed with her younger siblings and the two retired aurors that she had mentioned. Another group of aurors that James worked with made their way in, all wearing their work robes. All together there were around a hundred and fifty people who showed. The cave, unfortunately, wasn't quite spacious enough for all of them so Moody had to hollow out the cave a bit more.

Once the arrival of witches and wizards dropped off and everyone was situated, James shot sparks out of his wand and brought everyone to silence. "Hello everyone, thank you for coming so late at night. If you don't know me, my name is James Potter and I'm second in command of the aurors. My superior of course is Auror Bones," James said pointing her out. "Now, since you're all here, then most likely that means that you've been informed of what's going on. First things first though, everyone lift up their left sleeves." They all knew what James was looking for and exposed their Dark Mark free skin. "Thank you, everyone's clean. So are purpose right now is to figure out what we're going to do."

"How long do we have before we have to leave?" An older wizard in the back asked.

James shook his head, "We don't know, all Dumbledore said is that we had a predetermined amount of time to leave. It'll be in the paper tomorrow I'm sure. For the sake of caution I think we should all be prepared to move as soon as possible. Of course that's brings up the next point which is where do we go?"

"Shouldn't we get as far away as possible?" A middle-aged blond witch asked.

"The way I see it we have two choices," James stated. "The first option like you suggested is to run—go to another country and forget about everything we're leaving behind."

"And what's wrong with that?" Someone interjected.

"Nothings wrong with that," James added quickly. "No one is going to think less of you if you want to take your family and leave. Take them away and you'll be safe, yes. The question is for how long. Twenty years from now who's not to say that Dumbledore's ideals spread everywhere else. We'll bounce around until every major Wizard community has rejected us."

"What do you suggest then Potter?" Moody asked.

"I suggest we stay," James stated boldly.

"Are you crazy Potter? We're supposed to just stay and wait to be hunted down by Dumbledore's men? If that's the plan then you can count me out," one of James' fellow Wizengamot members commented.

James sighed exhaustedly. "Of course I'm not suggesting that we sit and wait for Dumbledore to kill us. I'm suggesting that we hide, but we hide within the United Kingdom."

"How do we hide so many people though?" Amelia Bones questioned.

"What's the reason that we use Hogwarts as a school? It's because it's a castle, it's easy to defend. Dumbledore has Hogwarts, so we take our own."

"Which castle?"

James stood up so address everyone more efficiently. "I don't think we should take just one, I think we should take one in each country. We divide our forces and create our own towns within the castle walls. We can set up a floo connection between the castles so that there can be travel back and forth."

"But James, how do we just take castles?" Sirius asked. "We can't just walk in and claim them."

"That's where you and I come in Sirius. Between the two of us, we have more money then most people can imagine. We go through Gringotts and get them to purchase the locations that we choose. The goblins won't go over to Dumbledore and they won't betray their clients so we don't ever have to worry about them giving out our locations."

"How do we stop someone from stumbling onto the castles, though, even the muggles?" One of the retired aurors Amelia brought asked.

James was going to answer, but Moody beat him to it. "The castles would be too large to use a fidelius charm so that option is eliminated. Best bet would be to use as many repulsion charms on the area as possible—muggle repelling, confundus, make the places unplottable—that sort of thing. They would be effective, just would have to be replaced on a consistent basis."

"This is all well and good, but what are we supposed to do once we've moved into these castles? Are we supposed to just sit around and live like nothing's going on?" Another wizard asked.

"No we're not going to just sit around," James replied. "We'll have to set up a working government within our castle network and we'll have to set up an education system to teach our children. Every man and women who is willing and able is going to have to train to fight if we ever want a chance to take back our lives. Dumbledore may have the advantage of size with his army, but we'll counter it with superior skill and superior tactics. Make no mistake; we will beat Dumbledore, no matter how long it takes!"

"James is right; we can't let the bastards win!" Sirius added in support.

Excited chatter broke out among the crowd and James let it continue for a few moments before he motioned for silence. "Alright let's see a show of hands of how many are on board. And remember that no one is going to criticize or chastise you for not going along. Who's in?" James was extremely heartened when he saw every single hand in the cave raise, even if a few were hesitant at first.

"Excellent," James used his wand to conjure a piece of parchment and quill. "Now everyone should right their names down on this, and then with any luck I'll have the details worked out by tomorrow morning and contact you. If you can think of anyone else who would be willing to join us then bring them along as well. When this news breaks tomorrow there are going to be a lot of confused and frightened people, and we need to let them know that there's another option besides joining Dumbledore and fleeing."

"James what about the muggleborns in Hogwarts, whose parents don't get the Daily Prophet? They won't have any way of knowing what's going on or a way to get their children," Remus exlplained.

"That's a good point Remus," James acknowledged. "If any one in here has children in Hogwarts then you should wait to get them until after the paper comes tomorrow. We don't want to draw any unnecessary attention to what we're doing, so wait until the rest of the country gets the news. As for the muggleborns, Sirius, Remus, and I will sneak into the castle and speak with McGonagall to work something out. I know Minerva and she won't stand for any of this. I didn't invite any of the teachers to this meeting because I knew they couldn't leave the school. Now are there any more questions because there is a lot of work to do?" He stopped and peered around, but everyone remained silent. "Alright everyone—let's get work."